Abu Dhabi Government

Members of the Abu Dhabi government, which owns the majority share in the discredited Bank of Credit & Commerce International, knew the institution was operating fraudulently, according to details of an auditor's report published in newspapers here Saturday. Price Waterhouse, an international accounting firm, told the Bank of England that its investigation of BCCI "revealed widespread fraud and manipulation of accounting records . . .

Citigroup Inc., suffering huge losses on mortgage-related securities, said late Monday that an arm of the Abu Dhabi government would invest $7.5 billion in the giant U.S. bank. The cash infusion would give the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority a stake of as much as 4.9% in Citigroup.

Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, said it plans an international film festival aimed at coupling movie projects with banks, hedge funds and other financial companies investing in cinema. The announcement comes months after the emirate set out its designs for an island art complex that will include the Louvre Abu Dhabi museum and the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi art museum. Organizers of the Middle East International Film Festival, to be held Oct.

Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, said it plans an international film festival aimed at coupling movie projects with banks, hedge funds and other financial companies investing in cinema. The announcement comes months after the emirate set out its designs for an island art complex that will include the Louvre Abu Dhabi museum and the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi art museum. Organizers of the Middle East International Film Festival, to be held Oct.

12 BCCI Executives Convicted of Fraud: The founder and 11 other former top executives of the collapsed Bank of Credit and Commerce International were convicted in a criminal trial in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and given prison sentences ranging from three to 14 years. Charges included dissipating shareholder funds, forging bank records and granting fictitious loans. In response to a separate civil suit filed by the Abu Dhabi government, whose ruling family owned 77.

Gulf Arabs will soon have their own Disneyland--Islamic style. The emirate of Abu Dhabi is in the final planning stages of a Disneyland-style entertainment park to be built on a spectacular man-made island. The government of Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has spent millions of dollars in the last six years on dredging and stacking boulders to mold the Gulf's first artificial island for the park that could cost up to $2 billion.

Citigroup Inc., suffering huge losses on mortgage-related securities, said late Monday that an arm of the Abu Dhabi government would invest $7.5 billion in the giant U.S. bank. The cash infusion would give the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority a stake of as much as 4.9% in Citigroup.

Abu Dhabi, the richest of seven sheikdoms in the United Arab Emirates, has signed an agreement with the Guggenheim Foundation to build a modern art museum designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Frank O. Gehry. The museum will be the first Guggenheim in the Middle East, joining properties in New York, Berlin, Las Vegas, the Italian city of Venice and Bilbao in Spain, according to an e-mailed statement from Abu Dhabi's government.

German carmaker Daimler said Monday that the sale of a 9.1% stake to an Abu Dhabi investment fund gives it an advantage over rivals that have yet to seek additional cash as automotive markets shrink. Daimler raised $2.66 billion selling new shares to Aabar Investments. The money will be used to finance fuel-saving technology such as development of battery-powered vehicles, Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche said.

New York buyout firm Apollo Management is proposing to raise as much as $1.1 billion in a private placement of stock. The plan, reported by the Financial Times on Tuesday, follows moves by several other large private equity firms, including Blackstone Group and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., to sell stakes by going public. The company plans to sell a stake of about 12.5%, implying a market value of as much as $8.

12 BCCI Executives Convicted of Fraud: The founder and 11 other former top executives of the collapsed Bank of Credit and Commerce International were convicted in a criminal trial in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and given prison sentences ranging from three to 14 years. Charges included dissipating shareholder funds, forging bank records and granting fictitious loans. In response to a separate civil suit filed by the Abu Dhabi government, whose ruling family owned 77.

Gulf Arabs will soon have their own Disneyland--Islamic style. The emirate of Abu Dhabi is in the final planning stages of a Disneyland-style entertainment park to be built on a spectacular man-made island. The government of Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has spent millions of dollars in the last six years on dredging and stacking boulders to mold the Gulf's first artificial island for the park that could cost up to $2 billion.

Members of the Abu Dhabi government, which owns the majority share in the discredited Bank of Credit & Commerce International, knew the institution was operating fraudulently, according to details of an auditor's report published in newspapers here Saturday. Price Waterhouse, an international accounting firm, told the Bank of England that its investigation of BCCI "revealed widespread fraud and manipulation of accounting records . . .

General Electric Co. has agreed to a joint venture with an Abu Dhabi government investment company that will pump $4 billion of outside capital into its weakened commercial finance business, part of a new global partnership to expand on GE's fast-growing sales in the Middle East. The deal with Mubadala Development Co. will also launch or broaden several other ventures with the Persian Gulf investment vehicle, which expects to become one of the top 10 institutional investors in GE.

Fluor Corp., the biggest publicly traded U.S. construction and engineering company, won a $1-billion contract to expand gas processing facilities in the Persian Gulf, benefiting from a regional construction boom. The work is for the Habshan Gas Complex in the United Arab Emirates and will be finished in the middle of 2008, said Abu Dhabi Gas Industries Ltd., or Gasco, as it's also known. The company, majority owned by the Abu Dhabi government, didn't give any more details.